PIPER CUBEBA. 39 
ing irregularly all the year round, sessile, the size of a pea, at first green, then red, afterwards black, covered by pulp. 
(Lindley. ) 
The native countries of black pepper are Malabar and the most westerly islands of the Indian Archipelago, as 
Sumatra, Java, Borneo, &c. It also grows in Cochin China, and Siam, Crawfurd states that it does not appear to 
be an indigenous product of the latter place, and concludes that it. was introduced by the Hindoos in early times from 
Malabar. 
The plant yields two crops of berries annually. The culture is simple and certain. In its native country the 
plant is an inhabitant of the mountains, and in the islands where cultivated, it thrives best in dry upland soil, and 
never in low rich loams. Either in the wild or cultivated state, when the vine is suffered to creep on the ground, the 
fibres, which, when it is trained, adhere to the prop, strike into the ground and become roots, and in this situation it 
never bears fruit. ‘To enable it to do so, it must be trained upon some tree or pole. The vines are propagated by slips 
or cuttings. The pepper yields fruit in its third year, and continues to bear for eight or nine. The berries are plucked 
when the first of the cluster turn red; they are in a state to pluck two months after the time of flowering. The clus- 
_ ters are gathered into baskets, and then trodden under feet to separate them. 
In the hands of the Malays one vine yields only six and a half ounces of berries, while, as cultivated at Penang 
under the eye of Europeans, a pound may be procured. The best pepper grows in Malabar; Java is said to produce 
the worst. 
In the first intercourse of the Dutch and English with India, pepper constituted the most considerable and valu- 
able article of their commerce. The pepper trade of the United States at present is with Singapore. It has been 
introduced into the West Indies by Poivre, and also will grow in Italy. 
The best pepper is large and heavy ; it ought not to be too much wrinkled. Each grain is composed of an exte- 
rior envelope and a white interior substance. Pelletier found it to contain prperin, a very acrid concrete green oil, 
balsamic volatile oil, extractive, coloured gum, bassorin, malic and uric acids, lignin and salts. The twooils communicate 
odour and pungency. Piperin was discovered by Prof. Oersted of Copenhagen. When black pepper is macerated in 
a, and the envelope separated, it forms white pepper. The purest piperin can be obtained from it, almost free from 
e oils. 
_ _ Asa condiment, the use of black pepper is universal. It was known to the Greeks and Romans. Asa medicine, 
it isa warm stimulant, capable of producing general excitement as well as topical. It is given in substance, and : 
enters into several preparations. 
Prare LXXXIII.—Represents the pepper vine in Jlower and fruit, and the organs of reproduction. 
PIPER CUBEBA. 
LINNAUS. 
THE CUBEB PEPPER. 
Sex. Syst.—Diandria, Trigynia. 
Gen. Cuar.—See P. nigrum. 
oe cee Cuar.—Stem climbing. Branches round, the thickness of a goose quill, ash-coloured, smooth, rooting at 
na Jes — very young, as well as the petioles, downy. Leaves four to six and a half inches long, one and a half 
ies =m es broad, stalked, oblong, or ovate oblong, acuminate, rounded or obliquely cordate at base, strongly veined, 
ee : sea very smooth. Spikes at the end of the branches, opposite the leaves, dicecious, on peduncles the 
fhéad “ssa Fruit rather larger than black pepper, globose, on pedicels from one-third to half an inch 
indley. ' 
* This Species of pepper is-a native of J ava, and the Prince of Wales Island. It grows luxuriantly in the 
voods. It is said to 
ties are round. ab grow in Nepaul and in the island of Bourbon. It is plucked in the immature state. The ber- 
veins iitent : out the size of small peas, of a brown colour, and marked over their whole surface with prominent 
Wl Seiorea- in the form of net-work. To them the peduncle remains attached, hence the name with the French 
4 queue, and the officinal name in some of the -books of Piper caudatum. When softened in water, these 
